I kind of think it's a problem with the thread creation process. It seems that lately, there have been a lot of duplicate threads created; while previously, our problem was only with duplicate messages. Sometimes, Joe and the JoeClones® are responsible for the empty threads - we delete duplicates or transfer the messages from duplicate threads, in an attempt to encourage people to keep the discussion in one thread instead of splitting it. The "delete" button no longer allows us to remove an empty thread from its place on the Forum Menu.
-Joe Offer-